Bloodied Red Azunyan
by MisterYada
Summary: Short horror story with the vict... I mean, star, being Azunyan. M for blood and guts. 8/9- Slightly revised and extended.


Author's Warning: I tried my best to make the start as gruesome as I could (Being the best in your anatomy class helps with this just a little). If you have a weak stomach, you may not want to read this. Can't say I didn't warn you.

**Bloodied Red Azunyan**

Screaming. All Azusa could hear was screaming. Was it her? She was so far removed from herself that she couldn't tell. All she knew was it was the last thing she would hear.

Her vision, bleary from tears and growing weakness, was set on the beast that had done _this _to her. It was easily eight foot tall, when it decided to stand on two feet, and muscular. The head of a wolf sat atop it's shoulders, with eyes glowing red, as if fueled by some demon energy. It's whole body was covered in dark gray fur, and it's thick arms ended in wicked, razor sharp claws.

Across the dirt path, in the pale moonlight, she spotted the lower half of her body. The only connection she shared with it now was a thin trail of what remained of her intestines and a black greasy stain on the ground where her blood had spilled. It had only taken one swipe from the creature to completely cut her in half. When it did, pain ran up the nerves in what remained of her spinal column to her brain like fire, erupting into the most intense, excruciating, moment in her young life.

What was left of her abdomen felt empty. Her stomach had burst out and her reproductive organs torn away as the claws ripped through her. The thing had started with her intestines, gnawing down on the ropy organs and making a sickeningly wet popping sound. At first she tried to hold everything in with her hands, but gave up as her blood ran in torrents over her fingers.

Her breathing slowed along with her heartbeat as the essence of life flowed away with the last of her blood. Her last ragged breaths gave her enough time to think about why she was here. What had brought her into these woods to be reduced to a bleeding pile of viscera. A bloodied, red Azunyan.

The last image she saw before her body failed her was of the straw basket.

**Hours Earlier**

Azusa sat at the table with the four other members of the Light Music Club; Yui, Mio, Ritsu, and Tsumugi. They had just sat down to their after-practice tea time, which took place in a rustic log cabin mountainside. It had a warm, homey feeling to it, and smelled a bit smokey and earthy. The building was one of Tsumugi's parents' many properties.

It was late fall, and the girls were on break. To take advantage of the break, Mio had suggested a fall camp, very similar to their summer camps that they held every year at the beach house. Of course the younger guitarist jumped right on board, hoping to get a little practice time out of it. Lord knows they barely practiced even if their lives depended on it. And if not, it would at least be a nice memory of being together before the four seniors finished their last year at school and part ways.

As she looked around the table, Azusa noticed that Yui was staring at the table disapprovingly. Though such things were not 'odd' with her fellow guitarist, there was always a reason for her actions. Azusa tapped her on the shoulder. "Yui-senpai, what's wrong?"

The older girl sighed. "Mugi-chan forgot to stock up on enough snacks for the whole trip. Now my tummy is sad."

_Food. Of course,_ she thought to herself. The blonde keyboardist smiled and pulled out a cute but cutting edge and expensive looking cell phone. "If you want I can make some calls and have snacks here by tomorrow."

Yui grumbled and rested her chin on the table. Her face screwed up in displeasure. "But I want sweets _nowwwwww." _She prolonged the final word to emphasize her dire need of sugary snacks.

Ritsu began to snicker and Mio just huffed in annoyance at her friends childish actions. Azusa knew that true peace would not be found in the cabin unless Yui had something to eat. She remembered passing a convenience store on the way up to the cabin, and she knew she had around two thousand yen in her wallet. Just enough to buy something to keep her senpai pacified until morning.

"I'll go get something from the store. It can't be too far, right?" At those words, Yui's eyes lit up with the brightness of a thousand suns and she instantly launched herself into the awkward side-hug that she so enjoyed giving the younger girl. Once her vice-like hug had ended, she ran over to the counter and picked up a woven straw picnic basket.

"Please, fill it up Azunyan! Lots of sweets for everyone!" Azusa took the basket. She planned on just using plastic bags from the store, but it was best to humor the eccentric girl. Plus it was a bit more environmentally friendly. "Oh, and wear your jacket. It's cold out there."

"Yeah, I know. I know." Azusa went into her room of the cabin and picked up her red zip-up hoodie from her bed. _That's odd. I know I didn't leave it here..._

When she emerged from the room donning the hoodie, Yui had a look of mirth on her face that she tried so hard to hide but failed. Azusa sighed. Yui had a hard time keeping something secret. "Yui, I know you're gonna tell me anyway... What did you do to my jacket?"

Yui jumped up quickly and reached behind Azusa to pull the hood up over her head. The younger girl flinched reflexively before she brought her hands up and felt the top of the hood. Sewn into it was... cat ears. Fuzzy, black cat ears. Ritsu burst out laughing once Azusa had discovered it. "Oh man! It's just too adorable! Ah ha ha ha!"

Azusa looked to Tsumugi and Mio, hoping they would be more mature about it, but smiles had crept on to even their faces. She sighed in defeat, knowing now that her image as 'Azunyan' had been solidified forever. One thing that bothered her, though, was the fact that she was in eyesight of Yui all day. _How the hell did she get away long enough to do this?_

She quickly gave up on trying to figure out the quantum mechanics of instantaneous teleportation and how her friend might have figured it out and opened the front door. A light breeze came over her when the barrier between inside and out was opened. It was still fairly light outside. She turned to the rest of the club, basket in hand, and waved. "Be back as quickly as possible."

And without another word she went down the forest trail. The path she was on led straight through dense woods before letting out on a small mountain road, across which was the convenience store. She did her best to hurry through, not wanting to be caught in the woods at night without a flashlight and not paying attention to which turns she took. The trip down was only a little bit more than uneventful; she had seen a fawn and tried to call it over, but it just ran off into the thicker parts of the woods. It was a bit calming though. The smell of the evergreen trees made her think of Christmas with her family and friends.

As she walked through the automatic doors of the store, she was thankful for her jacket, despite the ridiculous look the ears gave her. _Why do they keep the AC so low even in the colder months? It's just plain stupid. _

She paced up and down the narrow aisles, looking for anything that seemed appetizing. A jumbo bag of sour cream and onion chips, some teriyaki jerky, and, of course, some candy to satisfy Yui's all-powerful sweet tooth. Skittles, gummi worms, and a few Little Debbie snack cakes seemed like good choices. She brought all the items up to the counter. The clerk looked at her for a second, not doing or saying anything and making her feel a little paranoid. Her mind quickly made up a reason for his staring so she could break the awkwardness.

"Oh...um... the ears? Yeah, my friend likes to think I'm a cat and..." Azusa began, explaining her odd head ornaments. The clerk shook his head. The fact she had cat ears seemed to be no concern of his.

"You came out of the woods, right?" This was a strange question for someone to ask, but she couldn't see what the harm would be in telling him. If he tried to follow her, she knew a bit of self-defense. Not much, but enough to keep away a store clerk.

"Yeah. Me and my friends are staying in a cabin on the other side." His face became grim at hearing her answer. He looked over to a calendar on the wall behind the counter, which Azusa glimpsed, and noticed that that day's date was outlined in red.

"Do you know what tonight is?" _I dunno? Some local festival? What does that have to do with me coming from the woods? _"It's the full moon. Those woods are the last place you want to be on a full moon."

"Can you please just ring up my stuff? I gotta get back before it gets dark." She wasn't worried about the full moon, she just wanted to get out of the store so she could bring her friend the snacks and be away from this clearly 'special' worker. He shook his head and ran the items under the laser scanner.

"Your total comes out to eleven-hundred and fifty-two yen. Need a bag?" Azusa shook her head as she handed him the bills and coins that came to nearly exact change. She held the basket up to the counter and just scooped it all into the open end while he put the money into the register. As she walked out the door, she was almost certain she heard him saying "Nice knowing you. Can't say I didn't warn you."

The street was a rarely used one, which made Azusa wonder why they would put a convenience store there, but chased the thought out of her head as she ran across it and started back on the path up the mountain. Only a few minutes up the trail, she noticed it had become much darker. _Crap, I forgot that night comes quicker in the fall. Great._

Looking up, she saw a large white orb in the sky start to break over the tops of the trees; the full moon in all of it's brilliant and mystical glory. It provided some light on the trail, so she wasn't in desperate need of a flashlight or lamp. Further in, she heard the baying of dogs. This startled her, but it's not like she thought things like wild dogs didn't live in the mountains. But she quickened her pace, just in case.

When she was fairly certain she was near the cabin, she turned to see a long stretch of trail that ran into darkness. "I must of made a wrong turn without realizing it," she thought out loud to herself. She didn't know the woods well, so such a thing didn't throw her off too badly, if she didn't hear a branch snap behind her.

Turning to see what had made the noise, she froze at the sight of two red orbs looking back at her from the trees. She started to back up slowly, but the orbs followed her. When her mind had created enough order after seeing something so unsettling, she turned and started sprinting. To her dismay, she could hear whatever the orbs were attached to jumping from branch to branch, keeping up with her as if she were her precious pet turtle, Ton-chan.

Quickly slight worry transformed into blind panic as she rushed headlong into the deeper, darker parts of the woods. The thing had dropped to the ground and was now running alongside her, out of sight behind the treeline. She had no idea what it was, but she didn't want to find out. She thought she could see the end of the trail, and ran even faster, but stopped dead at the sight of a large black mass leaping out of the trees and into the middle of the path.

She turned around, losing all sense of reason as she ran faster than ever. Her muscles screamed for her to give everything she had. Mortal danger was nearby, and her whole body knew it. Following the path would only make it easier for it to run her down, so she dived into the thick foliage.

Her one mistake was the fact that she had no experience in the woods, whereas this thing had lived among the trees for years; probably more than her whole life. She was nearly blind as the trees grew so close together off the path that it almost shut out the moonlight. Branches snapped loudly as they gave way to her wild hurdling. Prickly brambles tugged on her pants and jacket, slowing her more and making her panic further.

The beast howled not far from her, reinvigorating her to keep going. The chemical equivalent of battery acid was now pumping through her veins from the strain of trying to escape certain death. She could both hear and feel the footfalls of whatever chased her hot on her trail. She tried to turn around to catch a quick glimpse of it again, out of sheer terrified curiosity, but it was upon her and quickly tried to swipe at her.

She brought her arm up to defend herself and yelped in surprised when the tip of it's razor sharp talon grazed her, not only creating a gash in the jacket's sleeve, but in her forearm. She fell to her back in pain, holding her arm, and just managed to roll out of the way fast enough that when it took another swing at her, it only scratched her cheek. Adrenaline started to work it's way through her system now, and with speed only found in desperate situations she jumped back to her feet and barreled deeper into the darkness.

Her arm and cheek were warm with the crimson liquid that flowed freely from her wounds, pumped out faster than normal by her racing heart. Though the chemical boost given to her by her own body helped her escape for the moment, it was wearing off quickly, making her feel more worn down than before. She needed a place to rest.

Stumbling through the underbrush, Azusa heard the distinct sound of water flowing around rocks. Her hopes of escape and safety soared, because she remembered the stream from earlier. It ran past the cabin. If she could follow it without getting caught, she could get to her friends.

True darkness had come over the woods, effectively blinding her. She relied on the sounds to guide her. Unfortunately, those betrayed her as well. She snagged her foot on a gnarled tree root that stuck from the ground and fell headfirst into the stream. She wasn't sure what shocked her more at that moment; the pain of hitting her forehead on the shallow and rocky bottom of the stream, or the piercing cold that clung to her as her clothes instantly became drenched.

She floundered wildly as she tried to crawl out of the flowing water, dazed from blood loss and hitting her head on a particularly large rock. She sat for a moment, trying to keep herself together, but failed at that task when she heard the panting of the beast. A twig snapped on the other side of the stream, telling her to move.

Her legs had now taken on the characteristics of lead, but the will to live could move mountains if need be. She kept going, the foremost thought in her mind being that it was right behind her. A few more moments of pushing through branches and underbrush rewarded her with a break in the trees. The moon's light shined down directly upon her, granting her the ability to see once again. Her head snapped from one direction to the other.

Down one way the trail kept going. If she followed it, death would be the only ending. Looking the other direction, she saw the one thing that nearly made her forget her pain and worry. Only a few hundred meters of woods led to the cabin. The cabin where her friends would be waiting for her, would take care of her wounds, would keep her safe and warm.

Azusa began sprinting. She looked down at her arm, the unharmed one, and realized that she still had the basket. Within her white-knuckle grip were the handles. It was crushed and torn from falling and running through branches, the contents no longer in it. _Yui would be disappointed, _she thought jokingly. Her slight lapse in concentration caused her to fail in noticing that the creature had emerged ahead of her on the path.

When she looked up, her mind could only come up with one word. _No. _She froze in place, looking stupidly up at it as it walked forward in her direction. Her body had given up. Fear and exhaustion worked in concert so that she just stood there, oblivious to the fact that the creature had finally stopped in front of her. Her mind started up again as it's warm, fetid breath washed over her face.

_This has to be a dream. Things like this don't exist. I'm back in the cabin, probably passed out in Yui's lap from a sugar daze. It's not real. It's not..._ Her thoughts disappeared and gave way to an ear-splitting scream as she felt something tear away her mid-section. Bone and sinew split before the might of the beast in it's hunger fueled frenzy.

Author's Notes: I based this a little off of Tastychainsaws' story _Long Way Home _when Azusa runs away from Yui in the woods and hears wild dogs howling. She says something along the lines of "Great. Now I'm gonna be the star of my own fairy tale. Bloodied Red Azunyan." I told Tastychainsaws I wanted to write it, and he gave me the thumbs up.

In case anyone wants to know my song of inspiration for this, it was _Scream _by _Avenged __Sevenfold._

Updated Author's Notes: I spent the time to revise and extend this story, mostly the chase scene, and added around a thousand more words (Not including these new notes.). The original posting wasn't exactly what I had imagined, but I wanted to type the idea up and get it online for people to enjoy before it went away. Now I think it's more to it's true image I had for it.

P.S. If you're slightly curious about the science aspect of this (Mostly the stuff that's going on with her body as she runs.), feel free to message me. As I said before, I was one of the best in my anatomy class last year, and I would be happy to answer any questions.


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